The Day I Made a Stronger Move Than Capablanca

"Capablanca was among the greatest of chess players, but not because of his endgame. His tricky was to keep his opening simple, and then play with such brilliance in the middlegame that the game was decided - even though his opponent didn´t always know it - before they arrived at the ending."

- Bobby Fischer

Hi all, hope you are doing fine, and, if not, that things improve quickly.

The year was 2012, already 8 years ago. I was around 19 (almost 3 years already since I had learned the old game), and was playing São Paulo´s (my State in Brazil) under 20 Championship. 

At the time, I had around 2050 FIDE rating, and my opponent, Renan Araujo, a talented player, had around 1900. The time control was if I remember well, 1h30 hour for all your moves, with 30 seconds increment or, alternatively, 2 hours without increments.

First of all, I will show the comparison with the 3rd World Champion´s game, the Cuban genius, José Raul Capablanca.

Then, I will show my game entirely for you with some brief comments, and say where I made a move stronger than Capablanca, and why.

Later on, for the more curious, there are some critical points (3 to be more precise) from my game, with some questions and observations in them. This way you can feel free to take time and think by yourselves. 

Introductions made, let´s see the games =).

My game:

A nice attacking game? Well... Let´s see it in a bit more detailed way later on.

Now, let´s take a look into Capablanca´s game.

Capablanca was playing Vera Menchik, the woman´s strongest player at the time. The game was played in 1935, in Moscow, Russia.

A good technical win from the Cuban genius. Completely closing the queenside, and putting his king in there, into safety. Later, he started some active measures on the kingside, exploiting some tactical points to win. 

Could you notice where both games' positions coincide? Right after Black´s 13th move, we reached the exactly same position by transposition.

Here it is, the critical position. As you can notice, Black´s intend to create some counterplay with ...b5. the 3rd World Champion played 14.Qe2, preventing this move from Black. 

I evaluated the position in a different way. If you guys look carefully, Black´s queenside pieces, especially his rook on a8 and knight on b8 are completely out of the game right now. Besides that, the bishop on d7 is in b8 knight´s way (it doesn´t have a square to develop right now). The queen on a5 isn´t doing much either. 

On the other hand, most of my pieces are aiming for the kingside. My queen, my rook on h1, and both bishops (yeah, there´s a pawn in the way of our d3 bishop, but maybe it will not stay there forever). I noticed that Black´s lack of coordination would permit me to take more drastic measures, and that´s why I came up with 14.Nf5!! - The strongest move in the position, sacrificing the knight for a pawn only, but, with a lot of initiative together with it. I open the light squares (the sleepy bishop on d3 suddenly wakes up), and have threats of g5-g6, followed by Bxh6 and killing infiltration! 

You can find some detailed analysis of the positions and other critical moments of the game below (I will just not return to move 14 again, as we already saw it.

1) 1st Critical Point

White has just played 9.g4, to discourage 9...f5 from black, as it would open the g-file and, apparently, exposes Black King. Which move would you play as Black? 

Answer:

Renan played 9...h6? It´s a passive move, not in the spirit of the King´s Indian defense at all. The right move here would be 9...f5, opening the game, and seeking for counterplay. 

Ok, you open the g-file, but your king is safe on h8, and you can try to get some play as Black on the g-file yourself, trying to reach White´s f3 pawn, now a liability in his camp (sometimes you have to look deeper in the position, and see´s what is under the surface).

2) 2nd Critical Point

We reached a critical position. At the moment White has a pawn for his sacrificed piece, How can we continue in the most precise way?

Take your time and try to evaluate the position yourself. I played 18. f4, was this a mistake or the most precise continuation?

Answer:

The best move wasn´t 18. f4, which is actually a mistake.

The most precise continuation would be 18.Qe2, which I saw at the moment, but thought would end all the same. We will see the continuation of 18.Qe2 soon, but, now we reached another critical moment of the game. 

3rd Critical Position: 

So, White just played 18.f4. Can you figure out his intentions and treats? Is there a way to stop them?

Answer:

18.f4 was a mistake. White intends to play 19.fxe5, followed by Qe2-Qxh5, and go for the kill. But, Black could have made a good defensive move here. 

Renan played 18...Bh6?, which is a mistake, as it allows a direct infiltration of White´s pieces after 19.fxe5 (the queen got a free pass to the kingside).

18...e4! - Black sacrifices a pawn back (he is already ahead in material, there´s nothing wrong in giving back some of it to parry White´s initiative. This way, it closes the way for White´s dark-squared bishop on e3-square to join the party later on with a future Bh6 (after Qe2-Qxh5). Engines evaluate this position as equal, as White still has compensation for the material deficit because of his advanced pawns, Black´s somewhat exposed king, and currently lack of coordination. 

Winning Continuation after 18.Qe2

Now, let´s see the reason why 18.Qe2 would be winning instead of 18.f4

First of all, 18.Qe2 doesn´t allow 18...e4. A possible continuation could be:

A beautiful variation, that shows a logical consequence of 14.Nf5!!, and why it was justified to play that move. 

This is one of the moves I´m most proud of having made, especially because it has a historical significance to me, as I´m a Capablanca´s fan and studied some of his games and legendary technique. 

Hope you have enjoyed it! Wish you all a nice weekend (or a week, depending on the moment you are reading it).

Cheers,

BKB99